The present invention relates to a contact-type data communication apparatus, a transmission and reception apparatus, and a transmission and reception method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a contact-type data communication apparatus capable of easily sharing a non-contact IC card and a contact IC card in an IC card communication system for performing communication with an IC card, to a transmission and reception apparatus for use therewith, and to a transmission and reception method for use therewith.
There are two types of known IC card communication systems for performing communication with an IC (Integrated Circuit) card: a contact-type IC card communication system for performing communication with an IC card in contact with a reader/writer; and a non-contact-type IC card communication system in which an IC card is not in contact with a reader/writer.
For example, in a non-contact-type IC card communication system, a non-contact reader/writer (non-contact-type reader/writer) generates an electromagnetic wave, thereby forming a so-called RF (Radio Frequency) field (magnetic field). Then, when a non-contact-type IC card (hereinafter, referred to as a “non-contact IC card”) is brought into proximity with the non-contact reader/writer, the non-contact IC card receives the supply of power by electromagnetic inductance and performs communication of a command with the non-contact reader/writer.
There is a known non-contact-type IC card communication system in which a plurality of non-contact IC cards communicate with one non-contact-type reader/writer (hereinafter, referred to as a “non-contact reader/writer”). Also, there is a known contact-type IC card communication system in which a plurality of contact IC cards communicate with one contact reader/writer (refer to, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-203428).
However, the communication method of the non-contact-type IC card communication system differs from the communication method of the contact-type IC card communication system. Therefore, in order to allow both a non-contact IC card and a contact IC card to perform communication with each other by using one reader/writer, for example, the reader/writer needs to be provided with two types of communication methods of non-contact type and contact type. For this reason, it is common practice that one of the non-contact-type and contact-type IC card communication systems is adopted depending on the properties of the application.